Welcome to the July 2017 ACT With Compassion newsletter!
In this issue we feature an excerpt from a recent Tool of the Month
post that got a lot of attention - the tool is a handout on four emotion systems that we use frequently with our clients. We also include links to other compassion tools, blog articles, and research updates that we've posted. If you know of anyone who might be interested in our content, be sure to forward the newsletter to him or her. You can also share it on social media with the social sharing tools at the bottom.
We hope you enjoy this issue – if you have any questions or comments, feel free to send them to us!
Sincerely, Jason Luoma, Jenna LeJeune, & Christina Chwyl
Featured Blog Excerpt - June 2017
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June 2017 Tool of the Month: Four Emotion Systems Handout
Four Emotion Systems: Flexibility is
key!
In our work with clients who tend to be highly self-critical and shame-prone, one of the first things we seek to do is to create a deblaming platform for understanding how the person has come to operate the way they do in the world. It’s important that client (and therapist alike!) understand that even though certain behaviors or tendencies might be contributing to
someone’s suffering now, these things likely evolved for very understandable and important reasons.
Part of creating a deblaming platform
One of the ways we help create this deblaming platform is by talking about the different emotion systems that we humans have evolved over millennia. Although there
are different ways of parsing these things up, neuroscientists generally agree that there are at least four basic emotion systems that influence how we perceive and respond to the world and manage our emotional states: 1. The Threat System, 2. The Drive/Reward System, 3. The Social Safety System, and 4. The Overwhelm/Shut Down System. These four emotion systems are associated with their own unique thoughts, emotions, motivations, and even different parts of the brain. And
it seems that these different emotion systems tend to be relatively distinct from one another-- generally, when one of these systems is turned on, then the other systems tend to be turned off.
Our brains seem to be “hard wired” to interpret cues differently based on these four emotion systems. - When the reward system is activated, our brain has interpreted a cue to mean that something gratifying or pleasurable is available or potentially available
- When the threat system is activated, our brain has interpreted a cue to mean that something dangerous or damaging might
happen
- When the social safety system is activated, our brain has interpreted a cue to mean that we are safe, loved, fulfilled, protected, or otherwise part of a tribe and it’s safe to relax
- When the overwhelm system
is activated, our brain has interpreted a cue to mean that our life is in imminent danger and our body shuts down
Here are links to other Compassion Tools of the Month that we've featured on the AWC blog in recent months: You can access all of our posts on clinical tools here. You can read about research on shame and self-compassion that might inform your clinical practice by clicking on the links below:
You can read up on all of our research updates at this link. We also feature original content on our blog - here are links to just some of the articles we've posted, including those we've published since our last newsletter:
Check out
more of our original blog content here. We are hosting two upcoming workshops in September on using ACT with shame and self-criticism:
Be sure to check out our Events page for information on other classes, workshops, and conferences relevant to therapists interested in shame, self-criticism, and compassion. If you know of an event you'd like to see listed, please contact us with the details and we'll put it on our website! |
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